Rambus Is Alive: SiS 658 In An Exclusive Test

Page 3 of 19:

Comparison: Chipsets For Pentium 4

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Chipset	SiS 658	SiS 659	Intel 850E
Price 1K unit	18 Dollar	n.a.	40 Dollar
Introduction	March 2003	June 2003	May 2002
Processor Plattform	Socket 478	Socket 478	Socket 478
Supported CPU	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4
Chipset Northbridge	SiS 658	SiS 659	Intel KC82850E
Chipset Southbridge	SiS 963UA	SiS 9xx	Intel 82801 BA
Front Side Bus Clock	100/133 MHz	100/133 MHz	100/133 MHz
Memory Clock	400/533 MHz	400/533/600/667 MHz	400 MHz/533 MHz
Asynchronous Memory Clock	yes	yes	yes
FSB-Overclocking	up to 200 MHz	up to 200 MHz	up to 166 MHz
max. # DIMM-Slots	4	4	4
max. Memory	2048 MB	2048 MB	2048 MB
SDRAM Support	no	no	no
DDR SDRAM Support	no	no	no
Dual DDR SDRAM Support	no	no	no
RDRAM Support (Rambus)	yes	yes	yes
Dual RDRAM Support (Rambus)	yes	yes (Quad-RDRAM)	yes
Ultra-DMA/33/66/100	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes
Ultra-DMA/133	yes	yes	no
Max. # USB	4	4	4
USB 2.0	yes	yes	no
Max.# PCI Slots	6	6	6
Integrated Graphics	no	no	no
AGP 1x / 2x / 4x	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes
AGP 8x	yes	yes	no
Hyper-Threading Support	yes	yes	yes
Chipset	Intel 845GE	Intel 845PE	Intel 845GV
Price 1K unit	37 Dollar	32 Dollar	26 Dollar
Processor Plattform	Socket 478	Socket 478	Socket 478
Supported CPU	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4
Chipset Northbridge	Intel RG82845GE	Intel RG8245PE	Intel RG8245GV
Chipset Southbridge	Intel 82801 DB	Intel 82801 DB	Intel 82801 DB
Front Side Bus Clock	100/133 MHz	100/133 MHz	100/133 MHz
Memory Clock	100/133/166 MHz	100/133/166 MHz	100/133/166 MHz
Asynchronous Memory Clock	yes	yes	yes
FSB-Overclocking	up to 200 MHz	up to 200 MHz	up to 200 MHz
max. # DIMM-Slots	3	3	2
max. Memory	3072 MB	3072 MB	3072 MB
SDRAM Support	no	no	no
DDR SDRAM Support	yes	yes	yes
Dual DDR SDRAM Support	no	no	no
RDRAM Support (Rambus)	no	no	no
Dual RDRAM Support (Rambus)	no	no	no
Ultra-DMA/33/66/100	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes
Ultra-DMA/133	no	no	no
Max. # USB	4	4	4
USB 2.0	yes	yes	yes
Max.# PCI Slots	6	6	6
Integrated Graphics	yes	no	yes
AGP 1x / 2x / 4x	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes
AGP 8x	no	no	no
Hyper-Threading Support	yes	yes	yes
Chipset	Intel 845G	Intel 845E	SiS 645DX
Price 1K unit	35 Dollar	28 Dollar	20 Dollar
Introduction	May 2002	May 2002	March 2002
Processor Plattform	Socket 478	Socket 478	Socket 478
Supported CPU	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4
Chipset Northbridge	Intel RG82845G	Intel RG8245EES	SiS 645DX
Chipset Southbridge	Intel 82801 DB	Intel 82801 DB	SiS 961
Front Side Bus Clock	100/133 MHz	100/133 MHz	100/133 MHz
Memory Clock	100/133/166 MHz	100/133 MHz	100/133/166/200 MHz
Asynchronous Memory Clock	yes	yes	yes
FSB-Overclocking	up to 166 MHz	up to 166 MHz	up to 166 MHz
max. # DIMM-Slots	3	3	3
max. Memory	3072 MB	3072 MB	3072 MB
SDRAM Support	yes	yes	yes
DDR SDRAM Support	yes	yes	yes
Dual DDR SDRAM Support	no	no	no
RDRAM Support (Rambus)	no	no	no
Dual RDRAM Support (Rambus)	no	no	no
Ultra-DMA/33/66/100	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes
Ultra-DMA/133	no	no	no
Max. # USB	4	4	4
USB 2.0	yes	yes	no
Max.# PCI Slots	6	6	6
Integrated Graphics	yes	no	yes
AGP 1x / 2x / 4x	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes
AGP 8x	no	no	no
Hyper-Threading Support	no (yes, Step 2)	no	no
Chipset	SiS 645	Intel 850	Intel 845D
Price 1K unit	n.a.	38 Dollar	23 Dollar
Introduction	November 2001	January 2001	December 2001
Processor Plattform	Socket 478	Socket 423/478	Socket 478
Supported CPU	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4
Chipset Northbridge	SiS 645	Intel KC82850	Intel 82845
Chipset Southbridge	SiS 961	Intel 82801 BA	Intel 82801 BA
Front Side Bus Clock	100 MHz	100/133 MHz	66/100/133 MHz
Memory Clock	100/133 MHz	400 MHz	100/133 MHz
Asynchronous Memory Clock	yes	yes	yes
FSB-Overclocking	up to 133 MHz	up to 133 MHz	up to 166 MHz
max. # DIMM-Slots	3	4	3
max. Memory	3072 MB	2048 MB	2048 MB
SDRAM Support	yes	no	no
DDR SDRAM Support	yes	no	yes
Dual DDR SDRAM Support	no	no	no
RDRAM Support (Rambus)	no	yes	no
Dual RDRAM Support (Rambus)	no	yes	no
Ultra-DMA/33/66/100	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes
Ultra-DMA/133	no	no	no
Max. # USB	4	4	4
USB 2.0	no	no	no
Max.# PCI Slots	6	6	6
Integrated Graphics	yes	no	no
AGP 1x / 2x / 4x	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes
AGP 8x	no	no	no
Hyper-Threading Support	no	no	no

The table above lists all the available chipsets for the Intel platform (socket 478). We did not include older modules with SDRAM support (such as the Intel 845, for example) in our test. After all, production of boards with these chips has long since ceased, or the boards are no longer available on the market.

The Intel 850E remains the most expensive candidate as a result of its low production run, costing $40 per chipset. This price is only exceeded by the soon to be released Canterwood (875) with 800 MHz FSB clock rate and costing $50.